1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic teller machine (ATM) installed at a financial institution such as a bank to automatically provide the facilities of depositing or withdrawal when operated by a customer, and more specifically to the construction of a receiving/dispensing unit adapted to feed deposited banknotes (hereinafter called "bills"), which have been inserted through a customer panel by a customer, into the machine and also to return or dispense bills from the machine to a customer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of automatic teller machines have heretofore been developed and actually employed to permit the automatic depositing or dispensing of bills when operated by a customer. They include, for example, those equipped with the bill receiving/dispensing unit disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. SHO 60-251487.
The receiving/dispensing unit is provided behind a customer panel of a main body of the automatic teller machine, and includes a rotary body which rotates with bills inserted and deposited therein by a customer or with bills to be dispensed from the main body of the machine to a customer. A bill guide of the rotary body undergoes angular displacements to various receiving/dispensing procedure positions such as a customer position where a customer deposits or takes out bills, a feed-in position where bills are fed into the main body of the machine and a receiving position where bills are received after having been counted in the main body of the machine for dispensation to a customer. A conventional automatic teller machine equipped with the above receiving/dispensing unit will be described with reference to FIG. 10 of the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 10 is a simplified, schematic side view showing the internal construction of the conventional automatic teller machine, in which the money-receiving/dispensing unit designated generally at numeral 11 is provided with a shutter 12, a rotary body 13, a bill guide 14 and an inserter frame 15.
Arranged in a predetermined positional relationship along a periphery of the rotary body 13 are a bill separating and counting unit 16, a first storage portion 18, a second storage portion 19 and a temporary storage box 24.
The bill guide 14 of the receiving/dispensing unit 11, said bill guide 14 being constructed of bill guide members 14a,14b, rotates integrally with the rotary body 13 so that the bill guide 14 undergoes angular displacements to predetermined positions. These positions include a customer position a where the bill guide 14 is tilted at a predetermined angle (for example, about 30.degree.) as indicated by solid lines so that a customer can deposit or take out bills, a feed-in position b where the bill guide 14 extends vertically corresponding to the bill separating and counting unit 16, a receiving position c where the bill guide 14 extends horizontally corresponding to the first storage portion 18 and the second storage portion 19, and a feed-in position d where the bill guide 14 is tilted at a predetermined angle in a direction opposite to the customer position d to correspond to the temporary storage box 24. The bill guide 14 undergoes angular displacements to these positions when the rotary body 13 rotates.
Although not illustrated in FIG. 10, the receiving/dispensing unit 11 has a roller for introducing bills into the bill guide 14, feeding out the bills from the bill guide 14 and holding the bills inside the bill guide 14.
With the construction described above, deposit and withdrawal transactions are conducted in the following manner.
Firstly, in the case of a deposit transaction, a customer presses an unillustrated deposit transaction button provided in a front customer panel of the machine, and inserts a passbook in an unillustrated passbook insertion slot or a card 23 into an insertion slot 22. The machine then conducts communication with a computer center and, when verified, the shutter 12 is opened.
At this time, the rotary body 13 of the receiving/dispensing unit 11 is temporarily held with the bill guide 14 kept standstill at the customer position a.
The customer then inserts bills together through a deposit/withdrawal slot in the inserter frame 15. Upon detection of the insertion by an unillustrated sensor, the shutter 12 is closed.
The rotary body 13 is next rotated by an unillustrated drive source so that the bill guide 14 undergoes an angular displacement to the feed-in position b. The bills are then fed out at a low speed in a stacked state by an unillustrated roller from the bill guides 14 to the bill separating and counting unit 16.
After the bills have been separated and counted one by one at the bill separating and counting unit 16, they are conveyed to a bill discriminator 17 along a transfer path 21a. Bills which have been found "good" as a result of checking by the bill discriminator 17 are conveyed to the first storage portion 18 for storage, while those found "bad" by the bill discriminator 17 are conveyed to the second storage portion 19 for storage. At this time, the bill guide 14 of the receiving/dispensing unit 11 has undergone an angular displacement to the receiving position c so that the bill guide 14 is ready to receive the bills from the first storage portion 18 or from the second storage portion 19.
The bills stored in the second storage portion 19, namely, those having been found "bad" are conveyed together along a transfer path 21c and are introduced into the bill guide 14.
The rotary body 13 then rotates so that the bill guide 14 undergoes an angular displacement to the feed-in position b again. The bills are fed out to the bill separating and counting unit 16. They are fed further to the bill discriminator 17, so that they are checked again there.
The bills which have been found "good" as a result of the above checking are stored in the first storage portion 18. On the other hand, those found to be "bad" are stored in the second storage portion 19.
The bills, which have been stored again in the second storage portion 19 as a result of the rechecking as described above, are conveyed along the transfer path 21c and are received in the bill guide 14 which has been held in readiness at the receiving position c. The rotary body 13 then rotates so that the bill guide 14 undergoes an angular displacement to the customer position a, where the shutter 12 is opened to return the bad bills to the customer.
After the bad bills have been returned, the shutter 12 is closed and the bill guide 14 returns to the receiving position c.
After the bad bills have been returned to the customer as described above, the amount dispensed is verified by the customer. When the customer presses a verification button in the customer panel, the bills stored in the first storage portion 18, namely, the bills which have been found "good" are conveyed along the transfer path 21c and are received in the bill guide 14. These bills are then conveyed along a transfer path 21d by way of the bill separating and counting unit 16 and the bill discriminator 17. In the course of being conveyed along the transfer path 21d, the bills are sorted according to whether they are normal or marred and also according to value denomination, and are then stored in a bill storage box 20 by an unillustrated storing means.
When a withdrawal transaction is next conducted, the customer presses an unillustrated withdrawal button provided in the customer panel. After insertion of the card 23 into the card insertion slot 22, the customer presses appropriate personal code number buttons and withdrawal amount buttons, causing the machine to communicate with the computer center.
When verified by the communication, the necessary number of bills is dispensed by a paying-out means according to value denomination from the bill storage box 20 and are fed out to a transfer path 21e. The bills are fed out from the transfer path 21e to the transfer path 21a and are then conveyed to the bill discriminator 17. Checking is conducted by the bill discriminator 17. Bills confirmed as "good" by the bill discriminator 17 are conveyed along the transfer path 21b and are then stored in the first storage portion
When bills to the value indicated by the customer have been stored in the first storage portion 18, a slip of paper with the details of the transaction printed by an unillustrated printer (hereinafter called the "transaction printout") is conveyed to and placed on the bills stored in the first storage portion 18.
The bills and transaction printout, which have been stored in the first storage portion as described above, are conveyed along the transfer path 21c and are then received in the bill guide 14 which has been held in readiness at the receiving position c.
The rotary body 13 then rotates so that the bill guide 14 undergoes an angular displacement to the customer position a. The shutter 12 is opened and the bills are thus dispensed to the customer.
If the customer forgets to pick up the bills and transaction printout after the shutter 12 has been opened, the rotary body 13 rotates so that the bill guide 14 undergoes an angular displacement to a feed-in position d and the bills and transaction printout are fed out to and stored in the temporary storage box 24.
As has been described above, the receiving/dispensing unit 11 in the conventional automatic teller machine can handle both deposited and dispensed bills through the same deposit/dispense slot because the bill guide 14 can undergo angular displacements to the four positions a, b, c and d. Further, the bills and transaction printout, which the customer forgets to pick up, can be stored in the temporary storage box 24 as a result of an angular displacement of the bill guide 14 to the feed-in position d.
In the conventional automatic teller machine described above, the receiving/dispensing unit--through which bills are received from or given to a customer--and the separating unit of the bill separating and counting unit--which receives bills from the customer or from the transfer path and separate and feed them one by one to the bill discriminator--are discrete from each other. This has led to the problem that the machine unavoidably becomes complex and large.
In addition, the transfer of bills from the receiving/dispensing unit to the separating unit requires thee bills to be stacked so that there is a high possibility of causing a transfer problem such as jamming during transfer of the bills. This results in a reduction in the reliability of the transfer and, since the transfer of the bills from the receiving/dispensing unit to the separating unit is carried out at a low speed, also in the problem that the processing speed of bills is slow.
Further, the rotary body is rotated by way of a belt. Because of variations in the adjustment of the belt tension, deformations of the belt due to the inertia force of the rotary body produced when the rotary body stops, and other causes, the rotary body cannot be stopped precisely and consistently at the same positions.
When bills are fed into the receiving/dispensing unit or when bills are fed into the bill guide from the first or second storage portion, the point of transfer may be shifted to cause a bill jam, thereby resulting in the problem that the machine is caused to close down.
When a load or resistance such as hooking is applied to bills as a result of such shifting of the point of transfer so that the smooth transfer of the bills is impaired, the bills are immediately skewed. This leads to the problem that the reliability of the conveyance performance of the automatic teller machine is reduced.